Hot Chocolate
by Apple Fairy
Summary: A bit of musing before the trip to the last Sephiroth; a bit of musing over Van, existences, well-being of friends, and of winter herself...all over hot chocolate. Absorption gate spoilers, oneshot. Contest entry


Hello and good to see you, reader! Apple Fairy here! This here's a contest entry, so I'm posting it up on here too. Hope you enjoy it. x3

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Tales of the Abyss.

* * *

_Hot Chocolate_

Story by Apple Fairy

* * *

_I will take the strength to go on_

_I will take the strength to help you_

_I will take the strength to be able to forgive the world after all it has done_

_Together, with all of us, we will be fine_

_We will be friends_

* * *

Guy never expected _Tear_ of all people to be the type to eat chocolate when she needed comfort. Well, she wasn't _eating _it, but drinking it probably counted just the same. He did, however, know Luke would probably sulk around the inn when he was sad. Like a puppy, kicked, whimpering, just begging to be picked up and petted.

"Hot chocolate." He echoed, an eyebrow raised, "Really?"

Tear nodded. "Yes. I'll be back soon." She opened the door, going to the café in Keterburg for a cup, to be left alone, not even bothering to give a proper goodbye, not finding it to be important anyhow.

Guy knew she wasn't going out for the warm smooth taste of it. She needed comfort. Tomorrow they were headed for the Absorption gate; for Van.

And she was going for cocoa. Tear Grants was going to drink hot cocoa to ease herself.

…Go figure.

"Wait." He called out, soon glancing to the couch, Luke laid out on it, hands intertwined on his stomach, staring listlessly ahead. No, Luke was too distracted to back him up with this. Too caught up in Van's words, in his question of his existence. Guy knew Luke. Hell, he had known Luke for his whole life (literally). Of course he knew, and he knew he would be thinking on it, solemnly. He would be on his own, it seemed.

"What is it?" Tear asked, bringing him out of his train of thought. Guy tried to handle this carefully. What with Jade visiting Nephry (maybe a lie, he wasn't sure), Anise buying supplies (the self-proclaimed team's Treasurer, always knowing how to save Gald, even if the knowledge wasn't all proud to be had), and Natalia out for a walk (Asch. Their future. That's all the reason she gave to Guy, and that was all he needed), he was here with two other members, both broken, only left with the tools to fix them.

He would try.

Guy smiled at her. "Mind if I join you?"

Luke sat up at this, his eyes looking at them. For what, not even he was sure. All he knew was that his curiosity was piqued now, and for some reason there was a strange simmering in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know it then, but anyone else would have said he was just jealous.

He would probably deny it, anyhow. Interpret it as you will.

Tear examined Guy's face of anything, something, not sure how to respond to this. She looked back to the hallway, the wallpaper's cream colors, thinking on his request. She looked back to him.

"Alright."

That was all she gave him, walking into the hallway, leaving the door open for him. Guy wasn't even able to take one step before Luke said something.

"Wait!" He called out, getting up from his spot on the coach. "I want to go too!"

They both looked back to him, and then to the other. Tear smiled, as Guy turned back to him.

"Then come on."

* * *

She dreamt of selenias. Maybe Lorelei was telling her something. It was symbol, heavy symbolism. The rest of the dream gibberish. In it, she had to fly the Albiore, Noelle telling her they had to save Legretta. She had to fly there as fast they could. Jade might have been on the plane too, but it was a dream, and dreams never made any sense. It didn't matter.

But she was flying above selenias. Fields and fields of selenias. There was nothing breaking its pattern below her, no ocean spanning with it's blue expense, no sand being endless and long. Just selenias. Selenias below her.

She might have seen Luke among them, even if only for a split second. It didn't really matter to her.

It was only a dream, one she had last night, after they returned from Mt. Roneal, after the Major was buried beneath the vast cold.

Tear pushed the thought aside. When she thought of Legretta, she could feel her throat tighten, the tears sting.

She pushed it aside, like a good soldier.

But now, she was looking into hot chocolate, the steam rising. She'd never have hot chocolate. She'd had chocolate before, presents from the above world from Van, but never like this.

It was always muggy and hot in the Qliphoth. So close to the core the miasma plaguing them. There was no snow, or cold. Keterburg was foreign to her. She had seen it on a map, had heard stories. She could put a finger on its place on the weathered paper, but it wasn't the same as placing a bare finger on the window feeling the cold glass, in the actual place.

Hot chocolate was foreign to her, just like the rest of the world had been. She realized, for a second, she was a little bit like Luke, kept from the world, discovering it. She knew the dangers, unlike Luke, however, who had a lot to learn.

But at least she had something in common with him, even if just a bit.

This made her happy, for reasons she couldn't explain.

She looked up to said person, who was able to change her train of thought from Legretta, from selenias, from Van to him. All to him.

He smiled on instinct, and looked down. He had been looking at her? She couldn't figure out why.

"Well," the waitress winked to Guy, who had been preoccupied by her chatter, "if you need anything, just call."

He smiled. "We will."

And as she skittered off, he turned back to them, cheeks flushed. Luke cast him a look.

"Do you have to flirt with all the girls we meet?"

Guy laughed, not at all offended. He knew Luke's jealousy at his charm, and he found it cute. "She was nice. And at least she didn't touch me."

"She would've."

Tear watched them talk, not contributing to the conversation. She had too much on her mind to, and decided to just be the outside, looking in.

Tear had been bullied as a budding member of the Oracle knights. Her brother, who so effortlessly rose through the ranks, by sheer talent alone had been the reason, unknowingly. She had received 'special treatment' they called it, because she had been his sister. Tear was, as Legretta once said, 'awkward' with people.

She never knew how it was like to have a friend near your age, like Luke did with Guy. Tear had been raised around older people, or children.

Maybe that was why she acted so mature.

"Don't say that, Luke. You'll jinx me."

"You really need to stop flirting with them, Guy. You practically _ask_ for them to touch you."

"I do not. I just…tell them they're cute is all."

"That's the same thing, idiot."

She wondered how it would've been like. To have that…a sort of closeness to age, making it easier to get along. Tear wondered if she had that now.

Natalia, Guy, and Luke's faces flashed through her mind.

…Yes. In a way. And Jade and Anise's, too, if you ignored the ages.

Yes, those days in the Qliphoth were gone. She took a sip of her hot chocolate, the liquid warming her stomach, her soul, her toes. It felt, and tasted, good.

She stopped thinking about Van and Legretta. She stopped thinking about the Qliphoth. She stopped thinking about selenias.

She just let herself indulge in the warmth, the comfort, the happiness.

* * *

He wondered how it was like to be a kid. He wondered how it was like to remember being eight or seven. How it was to be six and five and all the other subsequent years.

Luke never had that.

Luke had seven, and he could barely remember that. He remembered how weak his legs felt, that his skin felt cold, that he could make strange noises when he spoke. Then he remembered looking at the world, and instead of a nice greeting, he was given his mother's tears, his father's anger with Malkuth. Not that he would know how a proper greeting should go about, but it confused him, these tears, this silent anger, who these people were.

Luke. They had called him Luke. That was all he knew then. And Malkuth, whoever they were, or what it was. The Duke had been saying it a lot, this big man with his squared shoulders, and long hair.

Luke didn't remember a lot of that day. What he knew was all from Guy. It was too touchy a subject to ask his parents.

He found himself wondering how Asch had been. Somewhere along the way, he must've gotten used to the Order of Lorelei, gotten comfortable to his new life. He learned swordsmanship with Van, had become a God general, had lived as a new person. As 'Asch'; some person named 'Luke' was on the whole other side of the world, nothing to the God-General-to-be.

Luke wondered if he ever drank hot chocolate in Daath.

It was a vague interest, something that slipped over his mind, brushed it, leaving dust and remnants of consideration. Luke had drunken hot chocolate before. As the Duke's son, the heir to the throne, he got whatever he so desired, whatever pleased him that moment.

He thinks Guy might have been the first to let him have some, to taste from his cup.

He also thinks he might be wrong.

Luke stared into the cup mindlessly, the whipped cream melting, lightening the liquid. He liked to let it melt first. Natalia had argued that it would be cold if he did that all the time, once.

Luke told her it would be sweet enough; that it was worth it. She only sighed, and shook her head.

He might have been ten at the time.

He might've been wrong.

Luke had no trust in his memories right now. He might be wrong; he had been living someone else's life, had stolen it, and was running with what he had. He wondered what his real name would be if he gave back the one he had been borrowing all this time.

A flash of Asch's face (the same as his) went through his mind. Full of hate and mirth, and spite as he said the insult, the truth.

"Replica."

He tried not to think about it.

Luke thinks he stopped talking to Guy. More so, the conversation became foggy to him as his mind drifted to other things. Slowly he had been drawing back, his presence in it growing smaller, ever smaller, his answers becoming monosyllable, his attention miles away from his friend. Guy had smiled though, that warm smile, and seemed to throw all his focus on the outside, watching the snow fall from the warm inside of the café. Luke wondered if Guy ever thought of Asch either. Had worried about him, had wondered how those seven years had been without him and his family.

Luke then remembered: Guy didn't like Asch. He found him unpleasant, and only went with him grudgingly if he had to in the first place.

He felt bad. If he had never walked into the manor (more so carried in), they might've been friends. Maybe Asch could've persuaded Guy unknowingly to give up his wants for revenge. Maybe Guy would've given up on his own.

And maybe Asch would've died at Akzeriuth and Van would've had his way. Luke had a vague feeling Tear would've told him that if he ever admitted his thoughts to her. She was harsh, cold, but it was her own way of caring.

Luke sipped his hot chocolate, sweet and sort of cold. Just the way he liked it.

He wondered if Tear's lips tasted like it.

He felt the heat creep on his ears, soon shooing the thought away. Love was new to him, and it was too soon. Much, much too soon. Especially seeing how he was dealing with his inner turmoil of his very existence.

They were going to defeat Van tomorrow. His master. The one who had betrayed him. Strangely enough, he felt no hate. He felt confusion, but not hate.

Confused as to why he had been born in the first place. Confused why had created him. He found no answers in his mind, though, no ways of knowing.

All he found was fogged thoughts, thoughts of what could've been had he never been born. This depressed him.

He stopped thinking about it.

He focused his mind, his soul onto how it tasted. The hot chocolate, which was no longer hot, but rather cold and too sweet. Luke liked it like that, the sugar just right. He took another sip.

He supposed he could just ask him tomorrow at the final battle.

* * *

Guy was alright. What had been said was said, what argument was there, was settled with a tie. No negotiation, just a tie. No side winning, yet somehow they both lost.

Guy and Van. Master Gaillardia, the servant Vandesdelca.

He had no regrets. Only pity for Van.

Only pity.

He took a sip of his hot chocolate, the warmth dropping right into the pit of his stomach. Filling the core of his soul with warmth; with tingly feelings running up his spine.

Guy considered it to be the only good thing in cold weather; curling up in bed, drinking hot chocolate, good shivers of warmth.

It was sublime.

The room was quiet. He knew they were thinking, and he would wait patiently. His eyes slid to both of them; first the mature, and silent Tear, then the young, hard-working Luke.

They were his friends, his comrades, and he would be by their side, ready to listen if need be. Natalia had gone to him earlier that day, Guy having incited the confession with his worried questions. She seemed troubled.

She talked about Asch. Of course she would talk about Asch.

Guy was willing to lend an ear (or shoulder if it got that bad), to them, to a friend again. But they were quiet, and he would be patient. While Natalia was sensitive, a romantic, he knew Tear kept it in. He could understand Tear. Luke took things too far though. He had to be _too_ sad, or _too_ happy. He was a child, a child with a child's feelings.

He was only seven.

He worried about Luke. He worried about Tear, even as he drank his hot chocolate. He felt like he was walking on eggshells.

But he kept quiet anyway. He waited patiently.

Then, as he brought the cup down, from the corner of his eye, he could see Tear smiling, Luke's shoulders just a little less tense. Tear looked over to him.

"Maybe we should get dessert too?"

He smiled. "Sounds good."

He knew they would be quite alright, even if it was only for now.

* * *

That's the end of it! Thank you for reading! :3

I realize it's not that good, and I'm really sorry for it. I've been havinga terrible case of writer's block lately and...yeah. So sorry. Dx

Anyway, thank you once again for taking your time out of today to read this! Ciao! :3

-Apple Fairy


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